Legend · Pakistan

Shoaib Akhtar

Fast Bowler · Right-hand bat · Right-arm fast

444 wickets

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— Career wickets

The fastest bowler ever to play the game — the only man to break 100 mph in international cricket.

— Biography

Shoaib's legacy

They called him the Rawalpindi Express, and no nickname was ever more earned. Shoaib Akhtar bowled the fastest delivery in the history of the game — 161.3 km/h, the first man to break the hundred-mile-an-hour barrier — charging in off a run-up that brought entire stadiums to their feet.

1994–1998
Age 18–23
The boy from Morgah
Born in the small mill town of Morgah on the edge of Rawalpindi, Shoaib Akhtar once climbed onto the roof of a bus when he could not afford the fare to a trial, determined to chase a cricketing life. He broke into List A cricket in 1993/94 and first-class ranks in 1994/95, where his raw pace caught the eye of PCB chief executive Majid Khan and earned him a place on Pakistan A's 1996 tour of England. The reward came on 29 November 1997, when he was handed his maiden Test cap against the West Indies on his home ground in Rawalpindi, followed by his ODI debut against Zimbabwe in March 1998.
1999–2000
Age 23–25
The Rawalpindi Express arrives
Akhtar exploded into the global consciousness in 1999, his defining moment coming at the Asian Test Championship in Calcutta, where he bowled Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar off successive deliveries before a roaring Eden Gardens crowd — the Tendulkar dismissal coming with the very first ball he ever bowled to him. Christened the "Rawalpindi Express," he had become cricket's most electrifying new force, a bowler whose long, sprinting run-up made entire stadiums hold their breath as he charged to the crease.
2001–2003
Age 25–28
Box office and 100 mph
At his peak, Akhtar was pure theatre — a galloping approach, an arms-spread celebration, and a hostility that filled grounds wherever Pakistan played, while county stints with Somerset and Durham carried his name into England. The defining feat arrived at the 2003 World Cup, when he sent down a delivery clocked at 161.3 km/h against England, breaking the 100 mph barrier and writing his name into the record books as the fastest bowler in cricketing history. It was a number that turned a fast bowler into a global phenomenon — the standard against which every quick since has been measured.
2004–2007
Age 28–32
Craft, comebacks and the fight with the body
As genuine pace met hard-won guile, Akhtar reinvented himself, and in the 2005 home series against England his slower deliveries proved unplayable as he finished the leading wicket-taker, drawing praise from England's captain as the difference between the sides. That same season he produced a stunning 6 for 16 for Worcestershire, a reminder of his match-winning ceiling. Yet ankle and knee trouble increasingly punctuated his career — the recurring price paid by a body asked to deliver the fastest bowling the game had ever seen.
2008–2011
Age 32–35
The final spells
Even in his thirties the magic still flickered: on his IPL debut for the Kolkata Knight Riders in 2008 he tore through the Delhi top order to finish with 4 for 11 and a player-of-the-match award, prompting captain Sourav Ganguly to salute his character. He returned for Pakistan in the shorter formats, and at the 2011 World Cup, co-hosted by the subcontinent, he announced he would retire at the tournament's end — drawing the curtain on a career of 444 international wickets, laced with twelve Test five-wicket hauls.
2011 – Today
Age 36 onward
The voice of the game
In retirement Akhtar's outsized presence simply found new stages. He built one of cricket's largest digital followings through his YouTube channel — past 3.8 million subscribers and over 400 million views — where his unfiltered match analysis commands vast audiences, and in 2023 he launched "The Shoaib Akhtar Show". A sought-after broadcaster, he returned as an ambassador and commentator for the DP World ILT20, and in 2025 became a brand ambassador for nutrition brand Activit, championing health and well-being. Having turned fifty in 2025, he took on his first franchise mentoring role with the Dhaka Capitals for the 2026 Bangladesh Premier League, pledging to pass on his craft to a new generation of fast bowlers. Still celebrated worldwide as the "Rawalpindi Express" and the holder of cricket's fastest-ever delivery, he remains one of the game's most charismatic global ambassadors.